EcoLatrines for 20 Bolivian Families

The rainy season can last up to six months in Bolivia; having a dry, private toilet that will not overflow or harbor rodents will be a new experience for 20 families thanks to you at Global Giving. We have been building dry eco latrines for four years now, and the health improvements are noticeable for the families who have access to them.

The Pérez family lives in the community of La Patria. When we began building this year, only the children were around in the community. The parents had to leave to find work because the rainy season had lasted so long. The extended rains cut their normal working time in the sugar cane fields short. When our materials arrived in La Patria, Senora Pérez had made arrangements for her older son to be present in order to pay the family’s initial balance to ensure delivery of the materials. The son paid and immediately returned to his work, and the younger children helped us unload their bathroom materials.  Our construction manager shared with us how happy these kids were to know that they were going to have a bathroom, and described how hard they worked as each brick got stacked and each shovel of sand created the mounds that would eventually become their bathroom. Families like the Pérez family, with your help, will have improved health over the rainy season with a clean, dry bathroom.

Once the bathrooms are built, Etta Projects takes follow up and monitoring very seriously. We try to track our projects well into the future to make sure they are sustainable. We also learn from experience by improving our teaching and even our model at times. Our hygiene facilitator, Edit, told this story about monitoring eco latrines built in 2011 in the community of Rodeo. She went last month with local government officials and another NGO to see how the latrines and families were fairing. She came back with lots of information but this story stood out because one thing we check for is whether habits are changing. The answers the kids gave to these questions would indicate that this family has made the shift we are hoping for.    

Do you use the latrine?  “Yes, everyone in our house uses it.” answered Luis.

How do you use it? “We go to poop and then we put in dirt and when

we clean our bums we throw the toilet paper in too.” Mariel explained.

What do you do after using the latrine? “We wash our hands” said Juan.

What do you wash your hands with? “Soap and water” the children said.

Where do you wash them? “over there” indicating the faucet close by.

Edit shares that, “it is very exciting to know that the children and the whole                                                             family are using the latrine correctly and that they are maintaining their latrine.

These kids and thousands like them are healthier because your work with Etta Projects not only provides the structure but also the education and long term follow up.